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[quote Dennis S][quote h']Any clue as to what specific exercises the PT was having her do at that time?
Sometimes a bluging disc can cause problems, and then get pushed over the edge into a full blown hernmiation. The herniation is actually preferable to the bulge IMO since it can heal, while the bulge just lingers.
She didn't say what specifically caused it. She's had one back operation already. She went through all of this before and then 3 shots before they operated. I assume that's what they'll do this time.
Well, I think that she needs more than PT in light of the past surgery and shots, it sounds a little more complicated and you may consider a visit to an orthopedist on her regular doctors advice. Good Luck.
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If you're into alternative theories, many people swear by this guy:
http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-...68?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179983772&sr=8-1
for me, I had the beginning of sciatica. Had the MRI's, physical therapy, etc. Hardly touched it. 9 treatments of acupuncture, and I haven't seen it since. Go figure..
kiva
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There is no "cure", but here are the things that I feel are critical (from the experience of both me and my wife's sciatica over the years_:
1. Lose weight. If your mom is overweight at all, she's probably not going to progress until she takes some of the load off.
2. As h' says, stop sitting! Invest the big bucks in a motorized sit/stand workstation if she spends time at the compute or sitting watching TV. For the few seats she must sit in, then you need to make dang sure they do good things for her posture. The worst possible sitting situation for most people is generally the car. I finally found relief with a McCarty Sacroease device combined with a foam wedge (to tilt the pelvis forward).
3. Sometimes the sciatica is so bad it requires bed rest for a while (my wife was laid up for 6 weeks) to get through the intense pain period. Unfortunately, this won't do a dang thing for improving the situation long term, and may make things worse. Strengthening and flexibility exercises are what will help things in the long term.
4. I have found that looking very carefully at all of my daily "back hurting" behaviours and altering them has made a huge difference. I have reduced my sedentary periods as much as possible, and improved the posture situation at all the places I sit. This has done wonders! Humans are made to be active, not to sit.
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My younger sister has a herniated disk on one of the lower vertebra. It caused pain down her leg and other problems. First PT she went to did not help, turned out that one was giving her the wrong exercises and such to help with the specific location of the damaged disk. The second PT put her on a different set of exercises, that is helping a lot. So it may take going to several PT's until your mother gets exercises that improve her condition.
